THE
PRESIDENT: I'm getting ready to meet with Vicente Fox, for my first
state dinner next week. As you know, we've been in Crawford, Texas,
on what they call a working vacation. (Laughter.) Part of our working
vacation has been to travel the nation to talk about the values
of the Heartland. And one of the values of the Heartland is family
and faith, and the willigness of people to help each other in need.

And
those values aren't just a part of one ethnic group in America.
They're a part of every ethnic group in our country. And I can't
wait to share my enthusiasm about our neighbors and our relations
with Mexico, with Vicente Fox. And these missions remind me about
the important role that Mexico has played in the history, not only
of Texas, but our nation.

And
like the values of neighborliness, those values must extend beyond
the Rio Bravo as well. It's important to be neighbor -- friendly
neighbors with people across the street. It's important to help
a neighbor in need in America. But it's also important to live --
understand we live in an international neighborhood. And Mexico
is our neighbor. And we want Mexico to prosper. We want our neighbor
to do well.

If
you're in a neighborhood, don't you want all the neighborhoods --
the neighbors to be successful? I do. And we want Mexico to be a
successful country. And so we're -- as we say in Texas, we're pulling
for President Fox to succeed. We want the marketplace to take hold.
We want people to find work close to home.

But
we understand that if you can make a living in America, and you
can't find a job in Mexico, family values don't stop at the southern
border. People who share a desire to provide for their families,
that exists all across the country and in our hemisphere. And so
people are coming to work to provide food for their families. And
that's why we want Mexico to succeed. It's in our national interest.
It's in our national interest that relations are strong with our
neighbor. Those are values that are important, not only at home,
but internationally. And so I look forward to sharing my enthusiasm
about our relationship with our neighbor to our south.